The rumbling of motorcycle engines signaled the start of a memorial service commemorating National POW/MIA Recognition Day last Friday on Naval Air Station Whidbey Island’s Seaplane Base. Hundreds of bikers, part of the Patriot Guard Riders, made their way up the hill to the POW/MIA Sentinel Memorial Fountain, where the noon service was held.

A modest crowd turned out for the event, which opened with the presentation of colors, which included the POW/MIA flag, by the Naval Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps as an ensemble from the Oak Harbor High School Band played the National Anthem. Navy Chaplain Dan Link performed the invocation.

The service was led by Lt. Cmdr. Brian Danielson, a member of the National League of Families for POW/MIAs whose father, Air Force Capt. Ben Danielson, was missing in action for 38 years.

“We spent a lot of time wondering,” he said. “We grew up very aware of the MIA/POW issue.”

Danielson said the existence of the military’s Code of Conduct, an agreement all military members make with their country, explains why the POW/MIA issue is still relevant today. The code specifically addresses the conduct of  service members if captured by the enemy.

“That’s pretty powerful stuff,” Danielson said. “It’s the sacred contract that I would bet is resonating in the psyche of anyone in uniform today, or who has worn one.

“It’s the existence of our country’s process of honoring and returning our missing servicemen and ensures that our government makes good on their end of the deal of that contract,” he continued.

Danielson shared a story about his time as an Individual Augmentee in Laos, where he helped excavate the remains of a missing service member.

“I will never forget a special night when I was with my team in Laos when I lifted my glass and toasted, ‘Until he is home.’ I was stopped immediately by the rest of the team who said, ‘No sir, until they are all home,” said Danielson. “Right now, as we speak, there are teams deployed all over the world whose key ethos and motivation for enduring long hours and bone-breaking exhaustion is that specific phrase — until they are all home.”

According to Danielson, there are still 83,000 service members still missing from various conflicts: 73,000 from World War II; 7,900 from the Korean War; 125 from the Cold War; and 1,682 from Vietnam. The names of approximately 30 service members who were repatriated in the past year were read by Cmdr. Keith Eitner, commanding officer of Electronic Attack Squadron (VAQ) 129’s Squadron Augment Unit. As Eitner read the names, Danielson and Christine Picchi, widow of former prisoner of war Roger Lerseth, raised the POW/MIA flag.

Island County Commissioner Angie Homola shared a brief history of the flag and read a proclamation by President Obama. The observance drew to a close with a fly-over by VAQ-129 and a 21-gun salute by an NAS Whidbey honor guard. “Taps” was played by Oak Harbor High School students Sam Glavick and Elyse Anderson.

“It’s nice to do something for the community,” Anderson said.